1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communication between a host computer and an input/output (I/O) adapter through an I/O fabric. More specifically, the present invention addresses the case where the I/O fabric is attached to more than one root node and where each root can potentially share with the other roots the I/O adapter (IOA) resources which are attached to the I/O.
2. Description of the Related Art
Multi-root configurations which share I/O fabrics have not been addressed adequately in the past, and errors detected in an I/O fabric will generally bring down all the systems that may be using that fabric, due to the unknown of which I/O devices are affected and which root nodes are using that I/O.
Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a mechanism for defining to the I/O fabric which I/O devices are affected by which errors, and also to which root nodes those I/O devices are assigned.